The silence that followed could've been cut with a knife.

". . ." Flowey's eye twitched. "…Heh. Wow." He chuckled. It sounded flat. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

"L-Like I said, I'm only trying this because Frisk convinced me to. I still think it's impossible." Alphys mustered up the closest thing she could to a glare to throw at the flower. "Everything living thing has a soul. Except, well, you. You were never meant to have a soul." Flowey ground his teeth. "But… uhm. F-Frisk told me about your… uh. Y-your… essence? No, that not right- That you're not actually a flower, but uh. Well, I mean, you're a flower, but-"

"Frisk told you that I had Asriel's dust on me, and that I'm the semi-dead, soulless remains of the prince of all monsters." Flowey snapped. "Get on with it."

Alphys winced. "…R-right. A-and he was a boss monster. And boss monster children's souls are made by their parent's souls giving parts of themselves to form the child's soul. S-so, I've put together a theory.

If I can convince Toriel and Asgore to go along with it, I might be able to retrofit some old blueprints for the DT Extractor to extract soul power instead." She fumbled with the papers in her hands. "A-and uh, I can then create an artificial soul based on the boss monster aging process. I mean, I have no idea if I can do it, or if this is even possible, but… well, I'm willing try it." She looked at Flowey with a look of pity. Flowey was sure was going to break his teeth with harshly he was grinding them together. "I… I want to fix this. I want to help you."

Flowey had shut his eyes tightly. He was feeling something approaching pure, blinding rage.

"Save your fucking pity." The words struck everyone like a knife. Without another word, Flowey's face disappeared, shutting him away from the entire conversation.

Another long, suffocating silence. Alphys' shoulders sagged.

"S-so I guess that's a no?"

"No, Alphys, he didn't-" Frisk bit their lip for a moment. "It's just not something he likes talking about."

"No, really?" Undyne said, glaring darkly at the flower. "And here I thought he seemed just bright and rosy with talking about it.

"Undyne, you serve Asgore. Right?" Frisk turned to her. "This… well, this is all that's left of his son. Don't you want to help fix him?"

"I don't hate the Prince, Frisk." Undyne relented. Slightly. "But I sure don't like that flower's dam- er, darn attitude. We're trying to help him, he doesn't have to fly off the handle like that."

"It's not that he doesn't feel grateful, it's that he can't." Frisk, looked at Flowey. Right now, he looked like just an ordinary flower. "It's not his fault."

"It's mine." Alphys spoke again, her tone quiet and dejected. "I'm the one who… made him like this."

"You didn't know!" Frisk exclaimed. They didn't like their friends acting like this. "How could you have known that would happen?"

"Look, everyone just-" Undyne grumbled and pinched the area where a nose bridge would be on her face. "Let's just agree that this whole conversation is stupid and to stop talking about it and to just keep doing what we're doing. Okay?"

Alphys and Frisk both nodded quietly.

"Good." Undyne nodded, her arms crossed. "So, we just need Asgore and Toriel to agree to try it, then."

"H-how are we going to explain it to them, though?"

"I say we don't beat around the bush." Undyne looked to her girlfriend and shrugged. "It'd be easier to just tell it like it is."

"I… don't know if that's a good idea." Frisk spoke up quietly. "I don't think they'd even believe us without Flowey proving it to them. And I get the feeling he's not gonna do that."

"Well what are we supposed to do?!" Undyne yelled in exasperation.

"Just. Wait, I guess." Frisk said quietly. "Until Flowey's ready to go along with it. 'Til then, Alphys, I guess you just… uhm. Figure out how to make that… extractor... thing."

Alphys hesitated before nodding. "I-I'll do my best."

"Yeah!" Undyne smiled down at Alphys and patted her head encouragingly. "And I'm gonna help!"

Alphys just laughed nervously. There was a lot more explosions in her future, wasn't there?

…

Flowey's face slowly reappeared on his body, glancing around. It was morning time. More time passed than he thought. A quick look around the bedroom he was in showed that he was alone. No Frisk. Which was good. He didn't feel like going another childish escapade. He didn't feel like doing much of anything, really. He could wilt away and die right now, for all he cared.

…Okay, that wasn't true. Determination was a double-edged sword.

He sighed in frustration. He couldn't believe Frisk was trying this idiocy. Give him, a SOUL? It was ridiculous. It was infuriating.

They didn't want him here. They just wanted the little goat boy back. That's all it was. That all it ever was, wasn't it? Selfish little brat.

Chara would've at least been honest about using him.

He glanced over at the door when he heard it open, sneering at the Human child as they entered.

"Flowey, I-"

"Save it. I don't want to hear it."

Frisk flinched before approaching his pot on the desk. "We don't have to talk about it. Just… know that we can starting working on it whenever you want. If you want it."

"…" Flowey was looking away. "…Thanks, I guess. I mean- ugh. I'll think about it. No promises."

Frisk looked up at him, grinning slightly. "Thanks for considering it."

"Yeah, whatever. Let's go… do whatever you have planned to torture me with."

"Oh, we're not going to do anything like that."

"…Really? Well, uh, good to hear-"

"Yeah, it's Monday. We have to go to school."

"God DAMN IT-"

Just reminding everyone I'm still alive, here. This is just to tie up the loose ends from the last chapter and provide the beginning for this one.

So yeah, if you didn't notice, I took a long-ish break with this. I got caught up in the evil machinations of real life, but I should be able to get to a regular schedule now.